What factors affect DNS propagation time?

Date Submitted: 5/11/14

When you update the DNS (Domain Name System) records in your domain name's zone file, it can take up to 48 hours for those updates to propagate throughout the Internet. While we strive to make updates as quickly as possible, the DNS propagation time for your domain name depends on several factors that we cannot control.

NOTE: Many of the updates you can make in the Domain Manager affect the DNS records in your domain name's zone file. For example, if you set nameservers, enable forwarding or masking, enable DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions), set hosts and IP addresses, create mobile websites, or enable CashParking®, you update your domain name's zone file.

Factors that affect DNS propagation time include:

Your TTL (Time to Live) settings — You can set the TTL for each DNS record in your domain name's zone file. TTL is the time period for which servers cache the information for your DNS records. For example, if you set the TTL for a particular record to one hour, servers store the information for that record locally for an hour before retrieving updated information from your authoritative nameserver. Shorter TTL settings make can increase propagation speed. However, shorter settings also increase the number of queries to your authoritative nameserver, and that increased load slows your server's processing time.

Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) — Your ISP caches DNS records (stores the data locally rather than retrieving fresh data from your DNS server) to speed up Web browsing and reduce traffic, which slows your propagation time. Some ISPs ignore TTL settings and only update their cached records every two to three days.

Your domain name's registry — If you change your domain name's nameservers, we relay your change request to the registry within minutes, and they publish your authoritative NS (nameserver) records to their root zone. Most registries update their zones promptly. For example, VeriSign refreshes zones for .com domain names every three minutes. However, not all registries make updates that quickly. Registries often protect their root nameservers from overuse by setting a high TTL of up to 48 hours or more for those NS records. In addition, even though recursive nameservers should not cache the root NS records, some ISPs cache the information anyway, which can result in a longer nameserver propagation time.